The Francis Crick Medal and Lecture
is a prize lecture of the
Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
established in 2003 with an endowment from
Sydney Brenner, the late Francis Crick's close friend and former colleague. It is delivered annually in
biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
, particularly the areas which
Francis Crick
Francis Harry Compton Crick (8 June 1916 – 28 July 2004) was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist. He, James Watson, Rosalind Franklin, and Maurice Wilkins played crucial roles in deciphering the helical struc ...
worked (
genetics
Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...
,
molecular biology
Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...
and
neurobiology), and also to theoretical work. The medal is also intended for young scientists, i.e. under 40, or at career stage corresponding to being under 40 should their career have been interrupted.
List of lectures
Laureates include:
* 2022
Tiago Branco ''for making fundamental advances in the molecular, cellular and circuit bases of neuronal computation and for successfully linking these to animal decision behaviour''
* 2021
Serena Nik-Zainal
Serena Nik-Zainal is a British-Malaysian clinician who is a consultant in clinical genetics and Cancer Research UK advanced clinician scientist at the University of Cambridge. She makes use of genomics for clinical applications. She was awarded t ...
''for enormous contributions to understanding the aetiology of cancers by her analyses of mutation signatures in cancer genomes, which is now being applied to cancer therapy''
* 2020
Marta Zlatic ''for discovering how neural circuits generate behaviour by developing and disseminating definitive techniques, and by discovering fundamental principles governing circuit development and function''
* 2019
Gregory Jefferis ''for his fundamental discoveries concerning the development and functional logic of sensory information processing''
* 2018
Miratul Muqit ''in recognition of his research on cell signalling linked to neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease''
* 2017 ''for transforming our understanding of meiotic recombination and of human population history.''
* 2016
Madan Babu Mohan ''for his major and widespread contributions to
computational biology
Computational biology refers to the use of data analysis, mathematical modeling and computational simulations to understand biological systems and relationships. An intersection of computer science, biology, and big data, the field also has fo ...
''
* 2015
Rob Klose
Rob Klose (born December 28, 1977) is a Canadian researcher and Professor of Genetics at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford. His research investigates how chromatin-based and epigenetic mechanisms contribute to the ways in which ...
''for his research on how chromatin-based and epigenetic processes contribute to gene regulation''
* 2014
Duncan Odom
Duncan Odom is a research group leader at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, and the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute (CRUK CI) at the University of Cambridge. Previously he was as an associate faculty member at the Wel ...
''for his pioneering work in the field of comparative functional genomics''
* 2013
Matthew Hurles
Matthew Edward Hurles is head of human genetics at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and an honorary professor of Human Genetics and Genomics at the University of Cambridge.
Education
Hurles was educated at the University of Oxford where he was aw ...
on ''Mutations: great and small''
* 2012
Sarah Teichmann
Sarah Amalia Teichmann (born 1975) is a German scientist who is head of cellular genetics at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and a visiting research group leader at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI). She serves as director of resear ...
on ''Finding patterns in genes and proteins: decoding the logic of molecular interactions''
* 2011
Simon Boulton
Simon Joseph Boulton is a British scientist who has made important contributions to the understanding of DNA repair and the treatment of cancer resulting from DNA damage. He currently occupies the position of Senior Scientist and group leader ...
on ''Repairing the code''
* 2010
Gilean McVean
Gilean Alistair Tristram McVean (born February 1973) is a professor of statistical genetics at the University of Oxford, fellow of Linacre College, Oxford and co-founder and director of Genomics plc. He also co-chaired the 1000 Genomes Projec ...
on Our genomes, our history''
* 2009 on ''Reprogramming the code of life''
* 2008
Simon Fisher
Simon E. Fisher (born 1970) is a British geneticist and neuroscientist who has pioneered research into the genetic basis of human speech and language. He is a director of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and Professor of language a ...
on ''A molecular window into speech and language''
* 2007
Geraint Rees
Geraint Ellis Rees is Vice- Provost of research, innovation & global engagement at University College London (UCL). Previously he served as Dean of the UCL Faculty of Life Sciences, UCL Pro-Provost (Academic Planning), Pro-Vice-Provost (AI) and ...
on ''Decoding consciousness''
* 2006
Dario Alessi on ''Deciphering disease''
* 2005
Daniel Wolpert
Daniel Mark Wolpert FRS FMedSci (born 8 September 1963) is a British medical doctor, neuroscientist and engineer, who has made important contributions in computational biology. He was Professor of Engineering at the University of Cambridge ...
on ''The puppet master: how the brain controls the body''
* 2004
Julie Ahringer
Julie Ann Ahringer is an American/British Professor of Genetics and Genomics, Director of the Gurdon Institute and a member of the Department of Genetics at the University of Cambridge. She leads a research lab investigating the control of g ...
on ''Genes, worms and the new genetics''
* 2003
Ewan Birney on ''Being human: what our genome tells us''
See also
*
List of genetics awards
This list of biology awards is an index to articles about notable awards for biology. It includes a general list and lists of ecology, genetics and neuroscience awards. It excludes awards for biochemistry, biomedical science, medicine, ornitholo ...
References
{{RoySoc
Annual events in the United Kingdom
2003 establishments in the United Kingdom
Biology education in the United Kingdom
Genetics awards
Genetics in the United Kingdom
Recurring events established in 2003
Royal Society lecture series